Part 23: Another World

“Who are these people?” I asked with concern.

She immediately turned around to introduce them as Imagi suddenly came from behind one of the people in that group.

“They are the survivors of the murders that happened at Dream Academy High,” mentioned Cherry.

I was surprised at what I saw. So that meant I was seeing an older Toma, Shinobuki, Tachigo, Kibe, and Ogato before my very eyes. I immediately began to get very excited as each of them began to introduce themselves to me. Eventually however, I started to notice that Tachigo was eyeing me a lot. I didn’t exactly understand why.

“Umm, Tachigo is everything okay?” I asked him.

“Well we were wondering why you weren’t here today. Cherry told me we would meet you before school started for you guys.”

Oops. I did say I would come early today. That was the plan at least on the way out when we talked about it. I began to apologize because of how upset I was for not making an effort to do so. There was a lot of pressure to get this right. Fortunately, I had done my research yesterday.

“Yeah… I’m not too happy about that either. I was up doing a lot of things to prepare for this specific day though. By that, I mean I have a plan on how we can catch the murderer. I think I’ve found their weak spots.”

Everyone was extremely interested in what I had proposed. With that being said, we decided to review my plans at the Orchid Overpass.

As soon as we went inside that place and made a reservation to stay in one of the quiet rooms, Imagi had tapped my shoulder before I was about to go in.

“Hey… Thanks for everything. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you but, I will find a way.”

I was a bit confused as to what exactly she meant.

I guess I would figure it out soon enough…

Everyone was standing together in the room. There were no windows for anyone to peek in so we were safe with discussing it without being interrupted.

“Alright everybody. Today is the day us four get to regroup. Apparently my sister and these two other girls believe we can change what happened to every student that was murdered. Haniki-chan, tell us what you’ve found,” said Toma.

As I stood up, being a bit worried what they would think about it all, I took a deep breath and placed a large map of Dream Academy on the table before everyone there.

“Okay. Guys… You remember how the game says you have 45 days to complete and earn Candiere’s Heart Badge right? Well it turns out, 45 is actually a crucial number throughout the games. The developer placed many instances where it plays a vital role in uncovering the secrets hidden within the library. The same is true during the gameplay itself.”

“What evidence do you have?” asked Ogato.

I pointed directly at the kitchen room for the cafeteria.

“One question first. Has anyone ever been here before?”

Everyone nodded no. I began to further explain my reasoning on the place being connected to what I had found. I took out a sheet of tracing paper with the map of Candiere’s Cafe already drawn on it.

“The game has a map of the entire cafe. The Cafe Catalogue is nine floors up and is the 45th door to the right when you take the stairs to reach that level. Our school however has the kitchen room in reverse. Nine floors down and to the left. If you take the maps of both and tilt our school at a 45 degree angle, you’ll find the kitchen has a back door that lines up with the boarded door in the games. Almost as if they are one in the same.”

Mostly everyone in the room was astonished at how accurately it aligned. Ogato however was skeptical of it.

“Let me use my phone to see if the actual map you traced is correct,” she replied while pulling the image of Candiere’s Cafe up on her phone.

Sure enough, of course, every detail was present on the official map.

“So how does that help us explain the murders that occurred. In every scenario we weren’t there to witness what happened to them. Do you have any ideas on how that would connect with this?” inquired Kibe.

“Well here’s what I found out. In every case where a murder took place, the suspect was likely to have been on higher ground to the victims. They seem to have an obsession with killing them from above and not at ground level. I will go as far as to say that when Aia was supposedly viewing a flying figure in the fog, that the attack came from someone up in the air, on top of a building and not down through the manhole.”

“Ah. Wait are you saying you think that someone would take that opportunity to shoot them down without anyone noticing? Even if they attempted using a silencer to try and get away with shooting a weapon in public places without trying to be heard at the exact same time, it wouldn’t be the most effective way for them to go about committing a crime. There wasn’t any evidence at the time to suggest that as true. I mean, our classmates Nachi and Edahoshi literally died with a heart-shaped hailstone passing through both of their bodies. We all saw it,” stated Tachigo.

Realizing that the events may have actually played out under circumstances of paranoia made me question if the murderer was actually coming from the game world into our world. That plus UVOCA’s involvement meant there was only one way to prove this…

“Cherry, remember those super stella cherries you talked about?” I asked while considering the next steps in the plan.

“Yes.”

“I brought a butter knife to cut one of the cherries into pieces. You said they can help us travel between worlds in an instant, right?”

“It is true, but there is one problem with cutting the cherry open. I overheard from a UVOCA doctor once that the chemical compounds used to create it include a certain dose intake within one in order for it to work. This means you would need to even swallow the seed to get all of the necessary energy required to travel.”

“Hold on… So that means… Only one of us can travel, if you intend on saving the other. This sounds risky…”

“I’m not really sure if I should give the cherry yet either to be honest. I can’t grow them here since they are one-of-a-kind. They weren’t made for growing more trees that can produce the same kind. Every component of it is important. The safest option between travel is bringing the other cherry with you so you can come back. It is a hard sacrifice but, it is the most sufficient choice.”

I started to feel tense. My anxieties surged through my veins as my tired eyes began to question this whole situation. Should I eat the cherry? What if I didn’t make it back? What if I were to lose the cherry? Even more so, I wasn’t ready to just enter a place and replicate what I had did in the games. Going to another world and never coming back had some scary implications. Most notably because that would lead me to assume that perhaps Princess Candiere herself was doing suspicious things behind the scenes. I didn’t want to experience that possibility. The fact that Toma confirmed the stories were intertwined together in such a real way made me even more hesitant. I didn’t want to die for playing a game. I only completed it to figure out what happened.

“I don’t know about this… I think I am going to leave early. We can talk about it tomorrow.”

A hand slammed in front of the door. It was Toma. I was both startled and scared by this.

“I’m sorry Haniki-chan, but I don’t think you have much of a choice,” he said while staring at me with a dead serious expression.

“What do you mean by that? I can’t just go there by myself! I don’t even know if it will work. Imagi, why is your brother acting like this to me?”

I suddenly began to notice that Imagi herself wasn’t acting like the one I remembered. Something snapped. As if she had pulled down a facade of some sort.

“I thought you were my friend, Imagi. What happened to you?”

“The real question is what happened to you, Ararima Haniki. I told you to stop talking about everything out in front of everyone else. They don’t need to know more than what already is happening.”

My suspicions builded upon everyone in the room. What was going on? Were they all going along with this just because of what Imagi said? I had to know.

“Cherry, do you believe her too?”

Out of nowhere, Cherry was unexpectedly pinned down by both Ogato and Tachigo as she struggled to get out of their grasp. I tried to stop them but was immediately strong armed by both Kibe and Toma. No matter how hard I fought I couldn’t break free.

Imagi smiled while taking Cherry’s backpack and opening the case to take one of the cherries out while keeping the other inside for something else.

“Haniki, Haniki, Haniki… You always knew that deep down didn’t you? That you shouldn’t have played the game? I don’t think you realize how many times I’ve seen it all happen. You are nothing special. I don’t expect you to have any clue what’s going on right now but, I hope you told your parents that you loved them. Because you are never going to see them again.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. No. No. I didn’t want to go. Not like this.

As Toma and Kibe pushed me mercilessly toward the ground, Imagi sat on top of my legs and forced my mouth open as she slipped the cherry in while having her “bodyguards” keep my mouth shut.

Before long, I began to faint as I saw my body disappearing before my very eyes.